Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, situated on the south bank of the River Mersey opposite Liverpool, to which it is connected by the Mersey Ferries, the Birkenhead Tunnel, and the Merseyrail underground link. Birkenhead Park, opened in 1847 and designed by Joseph Paxton, is considered a prototype for Central Park in New York, whose designer Frederick Law Olmsted visited and was inspired by it. The town was a major centre of shipbuilding throughout the 19th and 20th centuries through Cammell Laird shipyard, which remains in operation. Birkenhead has a town centre with notable Victorian civic buildings reflecting its 19th-century prosperity.